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Which cheap and developmental ESP32 module to choose? Brief characteristics and opinions

gregor124 240 8
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  • #1 21709747
    gregor124
    Level 27  
    I would like to familiarise myself with ESP32 chips.
    I am familiar with other chips, but would still like to try to use a chip from this family as well.
    Could you recommend an inexpensive module, it doesn't necessarily have to be some kind of complex platform, something cheap but still developable.
    At the same time, I could use a brief overview of the circuits. I know I could have a look at the documentation of the chips, but such a short characteristic would help me to make a preliminary selection.
    And user experience is always an invaluable help, what to look out for and what to avoid.
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    #2 21709989
    khoam
    Level 42  
    In my opinion, the best place to start is with the ESP32-S3. It has everything that the other chips in the ESP32 family have. Of course, many people start with a 'traditional' ESP32, but mainly because of the low cost. The cost ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 on ali is about 30 PLN (16MB FLASH 8MB PSRAM), in Poland about 50 PLN. This is the official Espressif module.

    ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 board with USB-C ports, BOOT and RESET buttons .
  • #3 21710153
    gregor124
    Level 27  
    >>21709989 .
    The board looks quite interesting, but looking here https://done.land/components/microcontroller/families/esp/esp32/
    it's an LX7 on there, and all the newer ones are already RISC-V.
    So I'm not really convinced that this is a good choice to start with.
    And how is the 3.3V power supply in them, do these boards have a power reserve, because recently in Chinese modules a few people complained that it died in STM32F411 when powering a small LCD screen.
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  • #4 21710197
    khoam
    Level 42  
    gregor124 wrote:
    that's the LX7 in there, and all the newer ones are already RISC-V.
    .
    Both architectures are supported equally by Espressif. In addition, the official frameworks for C/C++ (ESP-IDF) and for Rust (esp-hal) are the same for the entire chip family. Of course, if one is only interested in RISC-V, then the best choice in my opinion would be the ESP32-C6 with support for Wi-Fi 6/BLE 5.3/802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee) or the cheaper ESP32-C61 without Thread/Zigbee support.

    The Espressif documentation repository is at the following link: https://documentation.espressif.com/en/home

    For the ESP32-C6 the official module is ESP32-C6-DevKitC , for the ESP32-C61 it would be ESP32-C61-DevKitC .
    Both modules are on sale, in different versions (C or M). Detailed documentation of the modules is at the link I provided above.

    gregor124 wrote:
    And how is the 3.3V supply in them, do these boards have a power supply
    .
    The total current consumption should not exceed 0.5A (at continuous consumption). This is mainly due to the limited heat dissipation from the LDO in these modules. The module itself can draw 0.3A at 'peak', so there is little left for external circuitry.
    This applies to basically all modules in the DevKitC series.

    In the context of the ESP32 family of chips, the RISC-V cores are computationally weaker than the Xtensa cores (LX6/LX7), but have lower power consumption.
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    #5 21710456
    sp4rk1e
    Level 10  
    if you search for a breakout module with USB-C take this: Wemos D1 Mini ESP32

    Which cheap and developmental ESP32 module to choose? Brief characteristics and opinions
    I like that because it has a small form factor and even though most of the important pins are broken out. A push button and GPIO controllable LED is available. You can supply the board with 5V (either via USB or directly). Low current devices can use the on board generated 3.3V directly.

    otherwise if current in deep sleep is an issue use the castellated ESP-WROOM-32 directly. Current in deep sleep measured across 10k shunt: 6uA. Nice for battery operated devices as my: ESP32 based remote control or ESP32 WiFi display for inside and outside temperatures

    all 'basic' features are available:
    ESP-WROOM-32 datasheet

    both variants available for about 5€ per piece. I've seen the D1 Mini for no more than 3€ in our favorite Chinese Warehouse :-)

    UPDATE:
    forgot to say for development with ESP-WROOM-32 modules these adapters have proven to be very useful:

    Which cheap and developmental ESP32 module to choose? Brief characteristics and opinions
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    #6 21710704
    khoam
    Level 42  
    When it comes to just learning to program with the ESP32 series chips, you don't even need any physical hardware. All you need is a simulator Wokwi . The simulator allows you to draw a schematic of a circuit containing external components (e.g. LEDs, buttons) and you can see how the program handles them during the simulation run. I use Wokwi with VSCode, but it also works in the Arduino environment. It saves a lot of time when testing your own software.

    https://wokwi.com/esp32
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  • #7 21710823
    gregor124
    Level 27  
    I'll have a look at that simulator, looks like it could be useful.
    And what's the hardware side of things, any special programmer/debugger needed?
    I'm generally familiar with the STM32 family, but I can see that ESP32 based chips are cheaper.
    I'd love to know if you know of any issues, limitations of particular modules that are worth looking out for.
    As I've figured out, there aren't that many of these chips, instead they are on different PCBs, which generates a lot of limitations.
    From my point of view, it would be important, for example, to know how many general purpose pins, how many serial ports etc. there are on each board.
    If you know where to find datasheets, schematics etc, links would be useful.
    Thank you in advance.
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  • #9 21710971
    khoam
    Level 42  
    gregor124 wrote:
    And what's the deal on the hardware side, do you need any special programmer/debugger?
    .

    Programming is usually done via the UART. The modules have a USB/UART bridge and an auto-reset circuit, so a USB cable is sufficient.

    Debugging is a bit more complicated. There is an official programmer/debugger ESP-PROG that is dedicated to this. It is not cheap (approx. US$20). Toolchain for ESP32 also includes a modified version of OpenOCD for debugging purposes.

    https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-iot-s...on/en/latest/hw-reference/ESP-Prog_guide.html

    gregor124 wrote:
    If you know where to find datasheets, schematics etc, links would be useful.
    .
    I have already provided a link in post #4 to the Espressif documentation repository. It is quite complete and updated on a regular basis.

    I also recommend Espressif Developer Portal : https://developer.espressif.com/

Topic summary

The discussion focuses on selecting an inexpensive and development-friendly ESP32 module for beginners. The ESP32-S3 is recommended as a comprehensive option with features comparable to other ESP32 chips, available officially as the ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 with 16MB flash and 8MB PSRAM. However, concerns were raised about its LX7 architecture versus newer RISC-V cores. The ESP32-C6 and ESP32-C61 modules, featuring RISC-V cores and support for Wi-Fi 6, BLE 5.3, and 802.15.4 protocols (Thread/Zigbee on C6), are suggested as alternatives. Both architectures are supported by Espressif’s official frameworks (ESP-IDF for C/C++ and esp-hal for Rust). Power supply considerations include a maximum continuous current consumption of about 0.5A due to LDO heat dissipation limits, with peak currents around 0.3A. Users should be cautious about power stability, especially when powering peripherals like small LCD screens, as some Chinese modules have reported failures under load.
Summary generated by the language model.
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